Given that an infant she obtained dance training off an excellent Mrs. Thorp in midtown New york. Around 1897, once graduating from Thorp’s dancing university, she toured briefly with Black Patti’s Troubadours. A good girlfriend greeting their to help you design to own a publicity which have Bert Williams and you may George Walker, who had just scored a bump within vaudeville debut from the Koster and you can Bial’s Songs Hallway. She agreed to design toward advertising and you will then entered the men so you’re able to dance regarding the cakewalk finale. Shortly after joining John W. Isham’s Octoroon, a critic towards Indianapolis Freeman proclaimed, “I’d merely noticed the best girl performer.” That have Elegance Halliday she molded the newest sibling dancing work of Overton and Halliday. They performed due to the fact group of Honolulu Belles in the Williams and you will Walkers’ The insurance policy Participants (1899), and you will following that, Overton started initially to build due to the fact a good soloist with nice positions. About sounds comedy Brand new Sons regarding Ham (1900) she performed and you can danced “Skip Hannah regarding Savannah” and you can “Top Woman”; and also in its second edition, “Society” and “Gleaming Ruby” and therefore brought their unique jubilant acclaim. James Weldon Johnson wrote you to she “got a reduced-pitched voice which have an organic sob to help you it, and this she know utilizing that have telling feeling when you look at the putting more than a tune” (Johnson 1933). Tom Fletcher recalled their own because the a musician just who performed ragtime tunes and you will ballads as well; so when a performer “who you may create almost anything, with no count whether it was dollars-and-side, cakewalk, if not some form of grotesque moving . . . she lent the newest overall performance a neat gracefulness of motion unparalleled by the anyone” (Fletcher 1954).
For the 1910, she entered the latest Wise Set, a black colored theatrical team, and you can appeared in Their Honor the fresh new Hairdresser (1911)
Towards the June twenty-two, 1899, adopting the closure off A lucky Coon, new ragtime music revealed of the Ann Charters as “a great hodge-podge of all things regarding ‘coon’ line away from money-dancing and ragtime tunes so you can selection on grand opera,” Overton partnered George Walker; their partnership do changes and elevate new cakewalk away from a key African-American anyone dance with the a black colored modernist term, a high artwork really worth getting did ahead of royalty, with the white elite, as well as on the latest show stage.
You to definitely nights while you are onstage, George Walker, to relax and play the fresh new part out of Bud Jenkins, turned unwell
Williams and you will Walker’s Dahomey (1903) was one of the first black colored musicals to know the latest cakewalk’s conversion. Involved, Aida (she altered the spelling away from their term off Ada to help you Aida, the name of your Haitian lwa out of virility) played Rosetta Lightfoot having a presented solo, “I do want to Be a bona fide Lady,” and also the “Cakewalk Finale,” partnered by the her spouse. “The new range, brand new elegance, the latest hoping euphoria of them dancers, just who bent more backward up to the thoughts almost handled the floor, an accomplishment demanding an incredible number of electricity, the keen prancing, almost from inside the slow-motion, have-not started equaled in this revel, let alone exceeded,” wrote Carl Van Vechten (Van Vechten 1974). Dahomey are taken to London area, where it actually was exhibited within a demand overall performance ahead of Queen Edward VII during the Buckingham Palace. Uk high-society adopted the new Regal Family members which have a beneficial gushing enthusiasm getting cakewalking. The business gone back to Nyc with a new kind of the sounds entitled In Dahomey, and this opened at Grand Opera (1904).
Inside Williams and you will Walker’s 2nd let you know, Abyssinia (1906), Overton Walker are each other a performer as well as the show’s choreographer. She are second appeared in the and you may staged this new audio number to possess Bandanna Belongings (1908). Their episodes was indeed later diagnosed since syphilis. During the 1909 he remaining the newest reveal, along with his role is rewritten to have Overton Walker, who donned their showy attire and performed their wide variety, including their big song, “Bon bon Buddie.” Together with her husband’s updates slowly breaking down, and you will faced with where their particular upcoming put, she chose to not ever renew her offer which have Williams and Walker and alternatively entered this new throw from Bob Cole and you will J. Rosamonde Johnson’s The fresh new Yellow Moon (1909) where she is searched in 2 songs number: “Pheobe Brown” and https://internationalwomen.net/no/blog/beste-interracial-datingsider/ you will “Pickaninny Weeks,” dancing buck-and-side to the chorus. She 2nd started from the The new York’s American Theater with a beneficial vaudeville act featuring an alternate dance, the “Kara Kara,” or moving l’Afrique.